


Season of Grief

by Bimo



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Post Curse of the Black Pearl, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-27
Updated: 2010-03-27
Packaged: 2017-10-08 08:48:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/74802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bimo/pseuds/Bimo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a short piece about Will and Swann dealing with the aftermath of the <i>Dauntless</i> catastrophe</p>
            </blockquote>





	Season of Grief

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks go to the amazing Fabu who fed this story a carrot when it was just a wee little plotbunny and later pointed out the finished text's strengths as well as its shortcomings :-)

SEASON OF GRIEF

Will recognises the Commodore's sword as soon as he spots it. The hilt he had spent so many hours on, the ornaments he had crafted.

"The original sheath has been ruined by salt water," Governor Swann hastens to say. And later, after a moment of silence, "We shall go for a walk, Mister Turner."

Out in Swann's Garden Eden, this walled little paradise of freshly cropped grass and odd marble statues, Elizabeth's father talks of everything and of nothing. How fluent Elizabeth has become at Dutch lately, and that one never knows what a proper education will be good for, someday.

"Are you aware, Mister Turner, what an excellent chess player my daughter is?" Swann finally asks as they reach the small fountain with the Greek huntress on top.

Taciturn, they watch the rise and fall of glistening water. The inkling that first came over Will when he spotted the sword in Swann's office gets stronger and stronger. How casually that unlucky thing, forged by himself, had lain on the visitors' chair.

"I understand I'm not the man you had in mind for Elizabeth," Will puts all on one card. Down at the blacksmith's shop, he was never taught how to move through these spheres in which one clever subtlety can stand for unspoken blame. "But, Sir, if you should think I have caused this whole tragedy, I must urge you to tell me right in the face."

"At least you show guts," Swann replies, and his wry, brittle smile makes it clear this conversation is not about Elizabeth's choice of a husband, but rather about the loss of a son whom Swann had never possessed and hoped he would gain.

"So can I hope, Mister Turner, that you show the very same courage when you think of the two hundred and thirty-six men who went down. Only because they sought to catch the very pirate you helped escape?"

"Elizabeth told me you've been at the Fort. How is Commodore Norrington?" Will asks gently, but receives no spoken reply, just a look.

In the quieter hours of evening, he has to walk all the way to Port Royal's naval church before some sun-burnt midshipman, amidst bare, empty benches finally tells him. "Commodore Norrington, should he not die from fever, will be court-martialled and perhaps even hanged," the child says, lighting a candle. For the proud, beautiful _Dauntless_ and its crew are gone and Jack Sparrow free.


End file.
